Geographic rivalries help stations boost pledge results

Originally published in Current, Dec. 15, 1997

Even the losers have come out ahead in a series of inter-station pledge contests dreamed up by public radio stations. This was the case in October for both Nebraska Public Radio and South Dakota Public Broadcasting's radio network, each of which raised more money than in any previous drive.

After whipping up good-natured rivalries with the benighted audience of the other stations, they even found ways to claim that both stations had won the Great Plains Great Radio Challenge.

Under the rules of the challenge, Nebraska was the winner because it was the farthest ahead of its goal at the end of the drive, says Steve Robinson, manager of Nebraska Public Radio Network. At the end of the Oct. 17-25 drive, with a total of $86,000, Nebraska had reached 133 percent of its goal, while South Dakota, with $60,000, reached 120 percent.

But South Dakota reached its goal first, on the next to last day, "beating Nebraska," according to a press release.

The Great Plains contest borrowed elements from earlier midwestern competitions, including matchups involving Cincinnati's WVXU, Pittsburgh's WDUQ, Cleveland's WCPN and Columbus's WCBE. WVXU has won three pledge contests against WCPN and WCBE so far, the most recent being September. This time, the mayors of both cities joined in the light-hearted challenge.

A similar contest played out in Nevada: Las Vegas's KNPR recently beat Reno's KUNR in October after losing two earlier contests. The winning station was the first to raise $100,000, on the sixth day of the drive. The last time KNPR raised $130,000, it took 14 days, says Cameron LiDestri, special events manager. A casino chain, Circus Circus, gave $6,000 to the winner and $4,000 to the loser.

But the showdown that caught the attention of Nebraska's Steve Robinson was the showdown last February between KLON in Long Beach, Calif., and WBGO in Newark, N.J.

KLON, as it turned out, won the contest on the evening of Feb. 8, since it was first to reach the $500,000 goal, acknowledges Paula Hunchar, development director of WBGO. Her station hit goal the next afternoon. Neither had raised so much money with so little pledging. Ground rules specified that the totals would include challenge grants as well as receipts from mailings.

KLON President Judy Jankowski had experience with the contests when she was running WDUQ in Pittsburgh, and challenged the other big jazz station to the duel.

"It gave us a lot of on-air energy," recalls Newark's Hunchar. "It was defending the jazz honor of the East Coast." Listeners would call WBGO to find out how their station was doing.

In Nebraska, Robinson was intrigued by the idea and mentioned it to his wife, who said, "Aren't you going to do it?" The next morning, Robinson proposed the Great Plains contest to South Dakota's radio chief, Larry Rohrer.

"I've been [doing pledge drives] for 30 years," says Robinson, "and I've never seen a reaction like this."

"I saw eight to 10 pledge forms in which someone said, 'I really love this pledge drive,'" Robinson says incredulously. "The words 'love' and 'pledge drive' are not usually uttered in the same sentence."

Both state networks hyped their drives with challenge grants collected beforehand. In Nebraska, the challenge grant donor typically promised to match up to $250 of donations from other pledgers.

As in earlier contests, the stations shared live breaks where they compared pledge standings, and listeners in each state devised mildly insulting slogans for the opposing state (samples in column at right).

Also helping was pitching assistance from the University of Nebraska athletic director--a revered figure in the state--and the series of funny pledge spots made for airing around the country by Ira Glass, host of This American Life.

"I have never seen a series of spots create the sensation," said Robinson. "We had people calling up and requesting certain ones--requesting a fundraising spot!"

Public radio listeners may tend to be "high" in various demographic categories, Robinson observed, but "these people are no more immune to a gimmick than anyone else." The gimmick was competitiveness.

Robinson was not immune himself. Soon after proposing the contest, he was regreting the idea: "Hey, what if we lose? This is Nebraska. We don't lose here." Then the drive started, and the contest was close. At noon of the sixth day, South Dakota suddenly pulled ahead to 76 percent of its goal. South Dakota had invested all of its challenge grants in an offensive maneuver. Worried that there were more suprises in store, Robinson flew to his Rolodex and began calling around for more challenge grants. "I was not to be denied," he remembers.

And he wasn't, depending on how you count the results.

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• Nebraska: The Other Dakota
  
• Nebraska: South Dakota's Shadow